CQ Politics' Web Picks

New York Times: Two Rivals' Fiscal Plans Would Add to Deficits

While both presidential candidates enter the campaign's final week promising to be the better fiscal steward, each has outlined tax and spending proposals that would make annual budget deficits worse, analysts say, with Senator John McCain likely to create a deeper hole than Senator Barack Obama would.

Boston Globe: Obama on Defense in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is the one reliably "blue" state where McCain, the Republican nominee, believes he has a shot, as he looks to compensate for the unknown number of "red" states that may slip from his grasp.

Washington Post: Accuracy Of Polls a Question In Itself

Could the polls be wrong? There appears to be an undercurrent of worry among some polling professionals and academics. One reason is the wide variation in Obama leads: Just yesterday, an array of polls showed the Democrat leading by as little as two points and as much as 15 points.

Los Angeles Times: Rethinking the "Bradley Effect"

It has entered political lore as the "Bradley effect" -- the supposed tendency of some white voters to lie when asked if they support a black candidate, producing a bubble of support that isn't really there. More to the point for Obama, there is no evidence that one still exists

Wall Street Journal: Campaigns Try New Web Tactics

For years, Republicans have used the party's so-called Voter Vault, a database of potential supporters fine-tuned over many elections, to target, motivate and secure the backing of voters. The Democrats, building on lessons learned through the primaries by the Obama campaign, are employing an ambitious Internet strategy to rally, harness and manage volunteers even in such inhospitable places as Avery County deep in the Appalachian Mountains, which has voted Republican every presidential election in its 97-year history.

Mental Floss: The Electoral College Survival Guide

As you will be reminded countless times in the coming week, you're not taking part in a nationwide popular vote, but rather helping decide who your state's Electoral College delegates support. So what do you need to know about the least-fun college this side of the Catholic Church's College of Cardinals?

Slate: The October Surprise

What distinguishes a fake October Surprise from the garden-variety, depressingly familiar overhyping of some little thing that we'll all forget in 12 hours? One thing: It relies on the dwindling clock for its fake drama. It's the idea that the Obama and McCain campaigns have been hiding some incendiary secret that's just slipped out at the eleventh hour.

National Review: Obama and the Supreme Court

If America's citizens care to wake up and pay attention before they elect as president a sweet-talking, moderate-posing left-wing ideologue with a history of alliances with anti-American radicals, one of the several matters they ought to think seriously about is the future of the Supreme Court.

Salon: Veepzilla!

To recap: Palin went "rogue," and blamed the Republican National Committee for buying her $150,000 in clothing. McCain advisors then unloaded on their veepzilla, calling her a disastrously underinformed "diva" -- anonymously, of course. Palin supporters shot back, blaming the McCain camp for its poor handling of the talented Alaska political phenom.